soundcraft/ROADMAP.md

SoundCraft roadmap

Stage: pre-alpha · next: alpha, ~5% and ~110–180 h away (the alpha gate's three failing workflows)

Last reviewed: 2026-10-24 · Last updated: 2026-10-25 · Change: trivial (side panels in dock columns, Auto Pan stereo balance, Clip List Auto Rename, Strip Silence rectangles, Strip Silence Rename, Strip Silence Extract and Separate, Clip Looping dialog, AudioSuite Vari-Fi speed ramps, Auto Pan plugin, Subharmonic plugin, Ring Modulator plugin, Float32 file headroom) · Target: Avid Pro Tools Ultimate 2026.4.1

SoundCraft is a clean-room, pure-Rust digital audio workstation that aims at full parity with Avid Pro Tools, and then beyond it: faster, open, scriptable and agent-controllable. This page is the one-page summary; the detail is in docs/target-app-parity.md (assessment), docs/gaps.md (ranked work list), docs/roadmap.md (milestones and beta plan) and docs/parity-checklist.md (generated menu checklist).

Headline numbers

Number	Value	Kind
Menu breadth	482 / 512 Pro Tools menu leaves (94.1 %); engine alone 397 / 512	measured (cargo xtask parity + UI-layer aliases)
Feature breadth	~70 %	estimated (menus plus plugins, hardware, formats, immersive, cloud)
Ready for real work	~40 %	estimated, weighted by dimension
Mainstream practitioner (tracking/mixing engineer)	~36 %	estimated: 50.6 % weekly-area depth × 0.90 interaction × 0.92 stability × 0.85 file exchange (how)
Essentials user (song or podcast, defaults)	~57 %	estimated: 72.4 % core-feature depth × 0.90 launch/stability × 0.90 discoverability × 0.97 files (how)
Remaining to alpha	~110–180 Opus 5.5 agent-hours (the failing gate rows)	estimated, calibrated on PR history
Remaining to beta	~350–570 Opus 5.5 agent-hours (includes the alpha work; ~60–70 % parallelizable)	estimated
Remaining to full parity	~950–1,450 Opus 5.5 agent-hours	estimated

Audience	Ready %	Agent-hours to ~95 %	Work that dominates
Full target (ready for real work)	~40 %	~950–1,450 h	Hardware, the stock plugin catalogue, AAF/OMF and immersive, localization, fidelity
Mainstream practitioner	~36 %	~380–600 h	Interface and MIDI recording, AAF/OMF, stock-plugin depth, core-path bugs
Essentials user	~57 %	~110–200 h	Launch and platform fixes, onboarding, effect panels and presets, MP3/AAC export

Hours are Opus 5.5 agent wall-clock hours, calibrated on this repo's PRs; 60–70 % parallelizes. Detail: target-app-parity.md.

Why pre-alpha: the core-workflow gate in docs/roadmap.md fails. Editing, mixing, bouncing, and saving and reopening work end to end. But a Pro Tools user can't record from a chosen audio interface at a chosen buffer size (only the default devices, a fixed 512-sample block, and takes held in RAM). They can't record MIDI from a keyboard (there is no MIDI device layer). And they can't bring a session in or hand one back (no AAF/OMF/.ptx). Readiness (~40 %) sits right at the alpha bar, but a gate failure keeps the app pre-alpha. The 2026-10-07 estimate ("~65 % overall, 110–150 h to 100 %") counted feature presence. This one measures readiness and adds hardware, localization and field bug reports.

By dimension

Dimension	Ready	Remaining (h)	Doc
Features	~45 %	520–810	target-app-parity.md
UI/UX fidelity	~55 %	60–100	ui-parity.md
File formats	~40 %	70–120	file-format-parity.md
Hardware (interfaces, MIDI, surfaces, sync)	~12 %	110–180	hardware-parity.md
Localization	~12 % (1 of Pro Tools' 8 languages)	70–110	localization-parity.md
Performance	~35 % (unmeasured)	40–70	hardware-parity.md
Stability	~45 %	50–80	gaps.md
Platforms	~65 % (5 platforms built, macOS exercised)	20–40	gaps.md
Ecosystem / plugins	~30 %	in Features + Hardware	plugin-parity.md
AI features	~5 %	30–50	gaps.md
Agent control	ahead of Pro Tools	3	control-protocol.md, mcp.md

Features

Area	Breadth	Ready	Remaining (h)
Recording and monitoring	75 %	40 %	40–60
Editing	92 %	65 %	40–60
Mixing and routing	85 %	60 %	35–50
Automation	80 %	55 %	20–30
Built-in plugins and AudioSuite	40 %	35 %	80–120
Third-party plugin hosting	70 %	45 %	40–60
MIDI and instruments	70 %	30 %	50–80
Score and notation	60 %	35 %	20–30
Elastic Audio, TCE, Beat Detective	70 %	35 %	40–60
Surround and immersive	55 %	35 %	50–80
Video and post	60 %	40 %	40–60
Session, file management, interchange	55 %	35 %	60–100
Collaboration and cloud (Avid services)	0 %	0 %	owner decision
Agent control	100 %	100 %	3

Weights and evidence per row: target-app-parity.md.

Languages

Language	Code	Status	Translated
English	en	full	100 %
Simplified Chinese	zh-Hans	none	0 %
Spanish	es	none (PR #143 open)	0 %
Hindi	hi	none	0 %
Arabic	ar	none	0 %
French	fr	none (PR #143 open)	0 %
Portuguese	pt	none	0 %
Indonesian	id	none	0 %
Japanese	ja	none	0 %
German	de	none	0 %
Korean	ko	none	0 %
Vietnamese	vi	none	0 %

Other languages shipped: 0. Detail: localization-parity.md.

Upcoming

Ranked; the alpha gate, the alpha checklist and the beta plan are in docs/roadmap.md.

1. Alpha blocker: audio interfaces: device and buffer-size choice, duplex stream, ASIO; record to disk (G-01, G-06). 35–55 h.
2. Alpha blocker: MIDI devices: record from keyboards, play instruments live, output (G-02). 20–35 h.
3. Alpha blocker: AAF/OMF import and export (G-03). 50–90 h.
4. macOS plugin entitlement (#153), then AU editors (G-05). 1 h for the entitlement (needed for the mix row), then 15–25 h.
5. Land the open bug-fix PRs and clear the correctness backlog (G-04). 15–25 h.
6. PR CI running cargo xtask ci on three OSes (G-14). 5–10 h.
7. Fidelity harness against Pro Tools (G-07). 20–30 h.

Robustness

Property tests drive random edit sequences (with full undo), mutated session files and hostile command parameters through the engine and mixer; they have caught fade, overflow and unbounded-allocation bugs. Every command also runs with empty parameters on empty and demo sessions. Hosted plugins live in isolated unsafe crates (clap-host, vst3-host, au-host) and are created, loaded and destroyed off the audio thread. The video decoders survive hundreds of mutated and truncated movies. Field reports from the first public week are tracked in gaps.md (G-04).

Progress log

• 2026-10-25: Tracks and Groups and the Clip List sit in dock columns that run the Edit window's full height at its left and right edges, with the MIDI Editor under the session view between them; Mix docks Tracks and Groups at its left edge. A panel dragged onto a dock group joins it as a tab, stacks above or below it, or makes a new column; one dragged to an empty window edge makes a dock there. A list with no saved place reopens in its dock, and makes the dock again when it is gone. Preferences and window configurations saved with the earlier split-frame layouts load with the new default layouts and keep their other settings. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-25: Auto Pan moves the balance of a stereo track: the left channel's level falls as the position moves right and the right channel's as it moves left, at constant power, and each channel stays on its own side. At the center the track passes unchanged, so a wide or out-of-phase stereo image keeps its width, and the envelope follower follows the louder channel. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-24: Clip List › Auto Rename (clip.auto_rename) sets the names that editing gives the clips it separates from the selected clips: a name, a starting number, a number of places (zeros before the number) and a suffix. The piece after each cut takes the next name, the piece before it keeps its name, and all the pieces count up one number sequence. Pieces that Strip Silence names with its own Rename fields, or removes, take no Auto Rename name. Copied clips keep their scheme when they are pasted, saved sessions hold the schemes, and Import Session Data brings them along. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-24: While the Strip Silence window is open, the Edit window draws a rectangle around each range that Strip would keep on the selected tracks, padded by Clip Start Pad and Clip End Pad, and the rectangles follow the sliders as they move. They are removed when the window closes. edit.strip_silence_preview returns the same ranges without changing the session. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-24: The Strip Silence window has a Rename button. It opens Rename Selected Clips, where a name, a starting number, a count of zeros and a suffix set the names of the clips that Strip, Extract and Separate leave in the selection (for example SFX023.Reel1, SFX024.Reel1). The app keeps the scheme for later uses of Strip Silence until the app quits, or until Clear and then OK empty it. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-24: The Strip Silence window has Extract and Separate buttons. Extract removes the audio and keeps the silent parts of the selection, and Separate separates the clips at the edges of the silence without removing anything. Minimum Strip Duration goes up to 4,000 ms. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-24: Clip › Loop… (Cmd+Alt+L) opens the Clip Looping dialog: Number of Loops, Loop Length in the main counter's time format, or Loop Until End of Session or Next Clip. A loop length that is not a whole number of loops cuts the last loop short, and Unloop removes that short loop too. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-24: AudioSuite ▸ Pitch Shift ▸ Vari-Fi slows the selected clips down to a complete stop or speeds them up from one, and the pitch follows the speed. Fit To keeps each clip's length and plays two-thirds of it; Extend plays all of it and makes the clip 150 % long. Fades On fades the audio out with the slowdown or in with the speedup. Before, the menu item resampled the clip at a constant speed. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-24: A built-in Auto Pan plugin pans the mono sum of a stereo track between left and right. An LFO with seven waveforms moves it at a rate in BPM or at the session tempo, running free, once, in step with the transport, or when the level crosses a threshold or a manual trigger changes; an envelope follower can move it by level instead. Width, Manual and Path set the field, and Output sets the level. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-24: A built-in Subharmonic (subharmonic) adds the octave below a lower and an upper band of the input, chosen from four frequency ranges, with a direct bass band, a gain and a solo for each band, Drive with six characters, HP and LP filters, and a Mix that keeps one path at full level. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-23: A built-in Ring Modulator (ring_mod) applies ring modulation, frequency modulation or a positive or negative resonator, and an LFO, an envelope follower or sample and hold moves its frequency. AudioSuite › Modulation › Sci-Fi now runs it instead of the Flanger. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-19: Float32 WAV and AIFF-C encoding preserve finite samples above full scale. Integer PCM still clips at full scale. Tests cover whole-file and streaming encoders, non-finite samples, and bounce output with normalization on and off. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-18: Mono audio devices receive the average of the stereo channels before output clipping, retaining right-only audio. Surround mixes use the same average after their ITU stereo fold-down. Regression tests cover channel balance, polarity cancellation, clipping, centered mono tracks, each 5.1 channel and several callback sizes. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-16: Master fader volume automation uses each render block's actual last sample, matching track faders. Breakpoints in the next block no longer pull the preceding block's level toward them, and ramps reach their last-sample value. Regression tests cover nonzero starts, one-sample callbacks and several block sizes. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-16: Aux, folder and master latency calculations exclude inserts already taken out for producing NaN or infinity, matching audio tracks. Subsequent blocks no longer compensate for an insert that is bypassed after failure. Regression tests check impulse timing, healthy insert latency and reset/retry at 64- and 512-sample blocks. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-16: Split into Mono extracts the correct source channel for each mono track instead of playing channel zero on every track. Clip offsets, gain, fades and stretch, source timestamps, Undo/Redo and saved audio are preserved; repeated clips share each extracted mono source. Unavailable media returns an error without partial edits. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-14: MCP batch rejects more than 1000 calls before executing any command, instead of silently running only the first 1000 (#460). No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-14: soundcraft-cli convert dithers only when the output loses resolution (fewer bits than the source, a float or lossy source, or resampled/normalized samples); a same-depth, wider or 32-bit float conversion copies the samples exactly and digital silence stays silent. --dither and --no-dither override the choice (#548)
• 2026-10-13: WAV: an empty data chunk followed by metadata (LIST, bext) reads as no audio; a recording that was never finalised (sizes left at 0) still gives what was written (#466)
• 2026-10-13: Sampler: a ping-pong loop keeps its phase and direction when a step is wider than the loop (a narrow loop with high transposition), instead of reflecting once and dropping the rest of the travel (#463)
• 2026-10-13 (VST3 host messages): The VST3 host creates IMessage and IAttributeList objects for plugins (IHostApplication::createInstance), so plugins whose controller and processor talk through IConnectionPoint::notify work: Line 6 Helix Stadium Native now loads its content database (it reported "Failed to get content database recovery info (Out of memory condition)") and exposes its parameters. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-13: mix.instrument takes the built-in instrument's parameters in params (validated, clamped) and refuses any other field, so a synth setting written beside plugin is an error instead of being accepted and ignored (#265)
• 2026-10-13: A bounce of a bus that an aux returns onto lines up with the timeline: the aux insert's lookahead is compensated like the main mix's (it left the bus late and cut the end off), and tracks routed to that bus wait for it too (#246)
• 2026-10-13: Delay compensation covers the inserts of the master faders: a bounce of the main mix with a Maximizer on the master lines up with the same mix without it (it came out 71 samples late) (#351)
• 2026-10-12 (audio device settings): Setup › Playback Engine chooses the audio system, output and input device, sample rate and buffer size, kept per machine with the preferences; 16/32-bit integer devices are converted; ASIO is available behind the opt-in asio build feature (verified with an SSL 2+ at 128 samples). Channel routing, one duplex clock and latency compensation remain (G-01). No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-12 (Mix in a separate window): Window › Mix in Separate Window shows the Mix window in its own native window, so Edit and Mix can be on screen at once (e.g. one per monitor), as in Pro Tools. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-12 (plugin editors on Windows): VST3 editors and embedded CLAP editors open in a SoundCraft host window on Windows (owned by the app window, resized on request, closed from its title bar); verified with a JUCE VST3 compressor and a CLAP effect. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-12: soundcraft-cli convert rejects an unparsable or zero --rate and an unknown --bit-depth (exit 1, nothing written) instead of converting with a default (#256)
• 2026-10-12: Timecode labels with huge fields no longer overflow: frame counts are computed in 128 bits and clamp, so setup.current_timecode and session.format_time saturate instead of failing (#248)
• 2026-10-12: session.format_time with the smallest bar number no longer fails with an internal error: the bar offset saturates (#249)
• 2026-10-12 (plugin editors on Windows): VST3 editors and embedded CLAP editors open in a SoundCraft host window on Windows (owned by the app window, resized on request, closed from its title bar); verified with a JUCE VST3 compressor and a CLAP effect. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-12 (Mix in a separate window): Window › Mix in Separate Window shows the Mix window in its own native window, so Edit and Mix can be on screen at once (e.g. one per monitor), as in Pro Tools. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-12 (audio device settings): Setup › Playback Engine chooses the audio system, output and input device, sample rate and buffer size, kept per machine with the preferences; 16/32-bit integer devices are converted; ASIO is available behind the opt-in asio build feature (verified with an SSL 2+ at 128 samples). Channel routing, one duplex clock and latency compensation remain (G-01). No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-10 (UI docking): Tracks and Groups, Clips, MIDI Editor, Memory Locations, and Undo History use movable panels. Edit and Mix retain separate arrangements; Clips and MIDI Editor belong to Edit. Transport, plug-in, and specialist utility windows retain their existing hosts. Panel moves and reset are available as UI commands, and saved UI preferences retain arrangements. Common toolbar and track record-enable buttons share interaction, accessible labels and keyboard focus through craft-ui, retaining blue tool selection and red record-arm states. No readiness percentage change.
• 2026-10-10 — Stage re-normalized to pre-alpha by the core-workflow gate (interface recording, MIDI recording and session interchange fail). Full re-measure against Pro Tools Ultimate 2026.4.1 and the standard progress-docs set (this page, target-app parity, gaps, roadmap, UI/format/hardware/plugin/ localization parity). v0.4.0 released. Community fixes: Cut All Automation, snap to neighbours, tempo stretch, I/O Setup, clip export names, menu-only dialogs, playback stop on new session.
• 2026-10-09 — Light theme and live system appearance, clip-gain fader and nudge, missing-media warnings, session audio health, malformed-JSON and encoder-extension checks in the CLI, macOS system menu bar, Windows DX12 default, Linux fontconfig, metronome click in playback.
• 2026-10-08 — v0.2.x–v0.3.0 released (Flatpak, AppImage zsync); VST3 quit crash fixed; Ctrl-as-Cmd shortcuts on Windows/Linux; plugin menus by vendor, AU inserts, instrument picker; rotating log file; branded DMG.
• 2026-10-07 — Repository published; About window credits; release CI on macOS runners.
• 2026-10-06 — Video track, Audio Unit hosting, plugin state and editors, Renderer; Mix window views; score export and print; surround mixing; VST3 hosting; property tests.
• 2026-10-05 — Foundation crates, Edit and Mix windows, playback, CLI/MCP, parity report, recording and punch, CLAP hosting, Elastic Audio, Beat Detective, release pipeline.

Revision history

Date	Change	Summary
2026-10-25	trivial	Progress log: side panels in dock columns; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-25	trivial	Progress log: Auto Pan stereo balance; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-24	trivial	Progress log: Clip List Auto Rename; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-24	trivial	Progress log: Strip Silence rectangles; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-24	trivial	Progress log: Strip Silence Rename; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-24	trivial	Progress log: Strip Silence Extract and Separate; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-24	trivial	Progress log: Clip Looping dialog; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-24	trivial	Progress log: AudioSuite Vari-Fi speed ramps; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-24	trivial	Progress log: Auto Pan plugin; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-24	trivial	Progress log: Subharmonic plugin; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-23	trivial	Progress log: Ring Modulator plugin; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-19	trivial	Float32 file encoding preserves finite headroom (#791); readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-18	trivial	Mono device playback retains both stereo sides and surround fold-down channels; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-16	trivial	Master volume automation block boundaries corrected; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-16	trivial	Failed inserts no longer contribute aux, folder or master latency after containment; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-16	trivial	Split into Mono preserves each source channel, clip edits and saved audio; readiness estimates unchanged
2026-10-14	trivial	Progress log: oversized MCP batches rejected before execution (#460)
2026-10-13	trivial	Progress log: empty WAV data chunk followed by metadata (#466)
2026-10-13	trivial	Progress log: sampler ping-pong phase for wide steps (#463)
2026-10-13	trivial	Progress log: mix.instrument params, unknown fields refused (#265)
2026-10-13	trivial	Progress log: bus bounce compensates aux returns (#246)
2026-10-13	trivial	Progress log: master insert latency compensated (#351)
2026-10-12	trivial	Progress log: convert option validation (#256)
2026-10-12	trivial	Progress log: timecode overflow (#248)
2026-10-12	trivial	Progress log: bar offset saturates (#249)
2026-10-10	minor	Readiness-by-audience table with hours: full 950–1,450 h, mainstream 380–600 h, essentials 110–200 h
2026-10-10	minor	Added mainstream practitioner ~36 % and essentials user ~57 % to the headline numbers
2026-10-10	minor	Stage alpha → pre-alpha: the core-workflow gate fails on interface recording, MIDI recording and session interchange; alpha distance added
2026-10-10	major	Rewritten to the progress-docs standard: stage alpha (re-normalized the same day), two numbers (breadth ~70 %, ready ~40 %), dimension/feature/language tables, hours re-calibrated; area table moved to docs/target-app-parity.md, milestones to docs/roadmap.md
2026-10-07	major	Menu parity 94 %, ~65 % estimated feature parity, alpha list
2026-10-06	minor	Alpha and parity estimates